Oct 12, 2008

Hurricane Sukkos is coming

Sukkos is bearing down upon us almost as fast as a hurricane can hit the southeastern coast of the United States.

And speaking of hurricanes, the meteorologists are expecting some nasty weather over the holiday, though not exactly hurricane quality.

Here is the forecast for the first day of the holiday. Rain expected all around Israel. Depending on the weather site you look at, you will see different expectations as to how long the rainy weather will last - anywhere from 2 days until through shabbos chol hamoed.

Rain over sukkos in Israel is very unusual. It happens to be that this year, sukkos falls out fairly late in the "season", so normally these rains would be post-sukkos, but this year they are during sukkos.

The thing is that it creates a bit of a dilemma. On the one hand, nobody enjoys rain during sukkos. it messes up sitting, eating and sleeping in the sukka. It messes up travel plans. it messes up the general enjoyment of the holiday. Along with the fact that the gemara considers rain during sukkos to be a curse, because it is as if Hashem is saying even though you are trying to do a mitzvah, He is not interested and He throws us out of the sukkah by sending rain.

On the other hand, we have such a serious shortage of rain (didn't the experts say we would not make it through the summer? what happened with that?) and water that every extra drop is really a blessing!

The real problem is that because it is such a rare event, most people are probably not familiar with the laws of how to deal with rain during sukkos, such as when you can eat indoors, when you have to stick it out and wait for the rain to stop or even eat in the rain, etc. It is time to review these laws that have not applied here in a very long time!

I have been teasing our friends who are arriving tonight from Israel about the mistake they are making coming to England for Sukkos, but looking at the forecasts, it looks like they made the right choice - at least from the weather point of view

Oy Vey, a tropical storm (Nana) just formed in the Atlantic, just in time for Succot! And this Nana isn't the kind of tempest in a teacup, it's for real. Though luckily if it gets here, it would likely be close the end of succot.

Oy sukos in america ahhhhhhhhh I remember many years where our schach just flew off.. sheilos of what to do.. schach cant be put back on shabbos (dont thing on chag either)weve had goyim throw our schach on at times..

I remember sukos in new york with whole sukos falling down! you dont have this issue in miami since we build it on patios using the house as 1-2 of the walls.

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About Me

I am a regular Joe with a Yeshiva background. I learned in Telshe Yeshiva, Heichal HaTorah (R' Tzvi Kushelevsky), and a now defunct Halacha Kollel. I have semicha from R' Zalman Nechemia Goldberg and kaballa in Shechita from Dayan Schwartz of Kehillas HaYeraim (Chomas HaKashrus). I have a college degree in Finance from Touro College and am also a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer.
My wife and I, with our 8 children, ben porat yosef (knayna hara), live in Eretz Yisrael.